‘Why haven’t I got any proper dresses? Why don’t you make a lady of me?’ ‘Would you like that?’ ‘No.’ Saying which, [Effi] ran up to her mother, threw her arms round her impetuously and kissed her.[i] Theodor Fontane (1819–1898) was a German poet and novelist best known for his realist style and social criticism of Wilhelm II’s Prussian Empire. In 1895, Fontane wrote Effi Continue Reading …
Not School in January
Have you resolved to become a PEL Citizen in 2015? What's this, you ask? It's an easy and affordable way to get access to all kinds of bonus content on the site. Plus, you get the chance to do some first hand philosophizing in one of our Not School study groups. We have two groups running this month so far, and you can still propose a new one if you hurry. Come join up! Our Continue Reading …
Virtual Insanity: Social Media with Jacques Lacan
[A post from Peter Hardy, longtime fan and contributor] For a couple of years I have been lurking on PEL's Facebook group, biding my time for the perfect moment to pounce on this blog. Recently I got to thinking about the philosophical ramifications of social media. Especially as we've just been looking at Jacques Lacan, for whom a central concern was to highlight negative Continue Reading …
Episode 75: Lacan & Derrida Criticize Poe’s “The Purloined Letter” (Citizens Only)
On Jacques Lacan's "Seminar on 'The Purloined Letter'" (1956), Jacques Derrida's "The Purveyor of Truth" (1975), and other essays in the collection The Purloined Poe: Lacan, Derrida, and Psychoanalytic Reading. How should philosophers approach literature? Lacan read Edgar Allen Poe's story about a sleuth who outthinks a devious Minister as an illustration of his model of the Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 75: Lacan & Derrida Criticize Poe’s “The Purloined Letter”
This is a short preview of the full episode. Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more Continue Reading …
Lacan’s “Four Discourses”
We briefly referred on the episode to the fact that, as for Marx, for Lacan, all ostensibly theoretical talk is really tainted in some way. Whereas for Marx, we're really just repeating, or perhaps reacting to in some more complicated way, the ideology of those in power. Lacan, following Freud, looks for a psychological explanation, for an underlying meaning or meaning Continue Reading …
Lacan’s Ontology
[Editor's Note: Wayne here is currently leading one of our Not School groups on Deleuze. Being well-versed in this area and having made some helpful comments on this blog, we asked him to clarify what he took to be Lacan's ontology. Thanks, Wayne!] Jacques-Alain Miller once asked asked Lacan, “What is your ontology?” Lacan replied saying that we should read both Badiou and Continue Reading …
Fink on the Split Subject (Lacan vs. Sartre)
I ended our episode bemoaning that I feel like I still don't understand this talk of "subject" as opposed to "self." A few of you have made some good comments on this, but I'm still not satisfied. Let me pull a few things out of the Fink book: 1. In chapter 2 about "The Nature of Unconscious Thought," he concludes (on p. 22) by saying, "Now this way of conceptualizing the Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 74: Jacques Lacan’s Psychology
This is a short preview of the full episode. Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more Continue Reading …
Episode 74: Jacques Lacan’s Psychology (Citizens Only)
On Bruce Fink's The Lacanian Subject (1996) and Lacan's "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience" (1949). What is the self? Is that the same as the experiencing subject? Lacan says no: while the self (the ego) is an imaginative creation, cemented by language, the subject is something else, something split (at least Continue Reading …
Paul Fry on Lacan
One of the groovy things about our new "open" society is how venerated institutions of higher learning like Yale are being strong-armed into sharing their course content online with the unwashed masses (aka you and me). This means you don't have to go to The Interwebs or TedX to get quasi scholarly ramblings about your favorite intellectuals or ideas: you can get qualified Continue Reading …
Topic for #74: Lacan on the Self/Subject
Listen to the episode. What is that thing I call "I?" While most of your grade-A philosophers of the past hundred years or so agree that it's not a Cartesian Cogito, i.e. an immortal soul characterized by continuous consciousness, the alternatives are many and varied. With Hegel, we got the idea that the self is built, and this through our relations with others, but that Continue Reading …
Not School Proposals for January
Merleau-Ponty! Buber! Lacan! Physics! Aesthetics! The Residents! Derrida! Deleuze! Searle! Pynchon! DeLillo! The holidays have definitely made it more difficult for me at least to be on top of my Not School activities, but nonetheless the new month is immanent, and I thought I should convey to those not currently monitoring the Citizens' Forum what new groups look to be Continue Reading …
Žižek on Hegel on Identity
One public intellectual who has made much hay of Hegel's continued relevance is Slavoj Žižek, who begins one of his jazz-session-like lectures on Hegel’s concept of identity here: Watch on youtube. It’s not clear to me whether Žižek is properly interpreting Hegel, mostly because I find both Žižek and early Hegel incomprehensible. Z's been accused of mis-reading Hegel, and Continue Reading …